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New Mercedes-Benz G-Class Raises the Question of Car Color

Despite how it might look, this is not a post about the new Mercedes-Benz G-Class. Very few of us will ever test-drive or purchase Merc’s veritable luxury performance off-roader, and even fewer will step foot into a G63 AMG or G65 AMG.

However, the new G-Series has caught my attention not because of the G63’s mind-numbing 5.4-second zero-to-60 time or the G65’s 621 horsepower, but because the color choices are as ridiculous as the car itself. Orange, lime green, magenta, and bright yellow complement the traditional choices.

I bring this up because just yesterday a friend asked, after reading our article about look-alike cars, why more color choices aren’t offered on new cars to set them apart. Here’s what she asked:

“Why are there so many silver, black, and white cars on the road when the world is full of so many great colors? Why can’t we have turquoise and lavender, magenta and lemon yellow? Why can’t we have more choice in car color? They may name these various shades of gray, black, and white different things, but that doesn’t change the inherent drabness and boringness of these car paint choices.”

After she said that I kept a keen eye out for new and exciting car colors, but saw only a sea of colorless drab dotted with the occasional primary color. Some lavender or magenta might be a nice change!

Bold colors are traditionally the realm of supercars. It’s not uncommon for a Lamborghini to be bright orange, but you’ll never see it on something as common as a Camry. The most obvious reason for that is because people who buy mass-market cars do so to blend in with the masses, not stand out from them.

Even if more flavorful colors were added to the menu, most buyers would avoid them, which is why we don’t see Camrys like this on the road:

Flashy colors are for flashy cars. It would be nice to see more variety of color on the road, but as long as the automakers give buyers what they want, we can expect a long future of roadways filled with the blandness of silver and white.